Obama: Inaction on guns biggest frustration of my presidency

by Jordan Fabian - 07/23/15 5:51 PM ET

President Obama said Thursday the failure to pass new gun laws has been the most frustrating part of his presidency.

In an interview with the BBC, Obama lamented the fact Congress refused to tighten gun laws “even in the face of repeated mass killings.”

“If you ask me where has been the one area that I feel that I’ve been most frustrated and most stymied, it is the fact that the United States is the one advanced nation on earth in which we do not have sufficient, common-sense gun safety laws,” he said.

{mosads}The president launched a major push for new restrictions on gun ownership following a mass shooting at a Newtown, Conn., elementary school in 2012, which left 26 people dead, mostly children.

But the measures, including universal background checks and a ban on assault weapons, failed in the Senate, where Republicans and some Democrats opposed them.

Gun rights groups such as the National Rifle Association vocally opposed Obama’s proposals, helping sink them in Congress.

Although he acknowledged the chances for congressional action are virtually zero, the president called for the nation to address the issue of gun violence following the shooting of nine people at a historic black church in Charleston, S.C., last month.

“Sporadically, our eyes are open. When eight of our brothers and sisters are cut down in a church basement, 12 in a movie theater, 26 in an elementary school,” Obama said during the eulogy for one of the victims, the Rev. Clementa Pinckney. “But I hope we also see the 30 precious lives cut short by gun violence in this country every single day.”

He cited statistics showing gun violence has taken a bigger toll on American lives than terrorism since the Sept. 11 attacks.

“If you look at the number of Americans killed since 9/11 by terrorism, it’s less than 100. If you look at the number that have been killed by gun violence, it’s in the tens of thousands,” Obama said.

“For us not to be able to resolve that issue has been something that is distressing,” he added.